VIIRS observations of Katabatic Winds from the Transcontinental Mountain Range Adjacent to the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica

One of the goals of the JPSS program set forth by NOAA is enhanced monitoring of the Earth’s environment. One specific type of event of the Earth’s environment that was captured by VIIRS on-board not only the operational NOAA-20 satellite platform, but also the demonstration S-NPP satellite platform was katabatic winds. Katabatic winds that flow through the glacial canyons of the Transcontinental Mountain Range represent a wind regime that transports some of the coldest surface air off the Antarctic ice sheet to the Ross Ice Shelf.

In the figure below a few key features are annotated. The glacial canyons where the katabatic winds flow along the Ross Ice Shelf are denoted. Furthermore, McMurdo research facility is also annotated. As a side note, McMurdo is one of the locations where VIIRS data is downloaded; Svalbard, Norway is the second location. Annotations in the figure are superimposed on top of Imagery Band (I-5, 11.45um), which has a 375-m sub-satellite footprint.

VIIRS offers high-resolution imagery as a means to monitor local-environments, however still images may limit interpretation of the imagery. The following sets of animations provide a GOES-16/17 ABI-like loops from combination of both S-NPP and NOAA-20 VIIRS instruments.